Religious groups practicing self-segregation

by Bruno Somerset

Religious groups have always attempted to separate themselves from what they see as the corrupting influences of secular society. This is their right, especially in America, although it ignores the Biblical command to "be in the world but not of the world." Far more interesting to me is the self-segregation that occurs every Sunday morning in Christian churches across America.

For as long as I can remember, Sunday morning church services have been called the most segregated hour in America. In my own personal experience this has been at least partially true, and a recent report on CNN.com seems to indicate that on the whole we prefer it that way. I'm not sure I agree with that, however, and I certainly don't believe we choose our place of worship based on its racial makeup.

The story on CNN appears at first to be a fairly in-depth (for them) look at the issue, complete with graphs and statistics and interviews with ministers and so-called experts. The report states that only 5 percent of the nation's churches are racially integrated, and attributes racism, both black and white, for the reason we "can't just all get along" in the sanctuary. In typical CNN fashion, they even got in a plug for Presidential Barack Obama, saying that while we may be ready for an African-American President, we're simply not, because of our inherent racism, ready to worship together.

The vast majority of the story's conclusions are, however, a load of bull. Of course racism still exists, and it can originate from any race or ethnicity. But not only is the situation not as dire as everyone likes to think, racism is not the main reason we are divided on Sundays.

First, let's point out one thing that is never mentioned in the CNN article, which focuses solely on Protestant churches: Catholic churches are very integrated. Partly because they are set up on a parish system that pulls in all Catholics from a particular geographic area, in any given Catholic church you will see a broad cross-section of people from all income, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. As a child I attended a Catholic church, and even back in the late 1960s and early 1970s there was a mix of whites, Hispanics, and Asians. I think CNN left off the Catholic Church precisely because they wanted to primarily focus on the black/white divide, and historically there have been few African-Americans in the Catholic Church.

Now let's ask the most obvious question. If the main issue is race, then why are there thousands (yes, thousands) of different denominations, offshoots, subgroups, and independent churches in what sociologists would call the "white church?" Race certainly isn't the reason for this, with the exception of the major North-South split that occurred among Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians 150 years ago over the issue of slavery. There are many reasons for the division within and between all denominations, but one of the biggest is worship and preaching style. Just like we don't all listen to the same type of music, different people are more comfortable with certain styles of worship and preaching. This is true in both the "black church" and the "white church." Churches also split along conservative and liberal lines, just like we do politically.

Finally, there is the issue is that we want to gloss over even more than race: people, including Christians, simply have an unbelievably hard time getting along with each other, and while we may have to play nice with people we don't like at work, school, and other social gatherings, we don't seem as inclined to do it at church, which is the one place we probably should. Let me use my own Southern Baptist brethren as an example. Towns in Texas with barely enough inhabitants to support one church will almost always have a least two Baptist churches, and often more, because someone at some point got offended at the first church and started a new one.

Realistically, this ongoing divide should not surprise us. It started all the way back in the first century when the apostle Paul lamented the fact that the Corinthians had broken into factions, with some saying they followed Peter, others Paul, others Apollos, and still others Christ. This was followed by the split between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, then the splits of the Protestant Reformation, and all the way to the ongoing divisions today.

It is also instructive that in John's Gospel Jesus prayed that his followers would all be one as he and the Father are One. If Jesus had not known (from the beginning of time, in fact) that we would splinter into a million different groups, would he have prayed this? Unity in the church should always be a goal we seek to attain, but we shouldn't be surprised when we don't reach it.